Like many former residents of Bangkok, I have been watching the country's slide into virtual civil war with a mixture of incredulity and tetchy disillusion. It is hard for us to think of one of the world's only truly Buddhist states descending into a chaotic thuggery that would, alas, be less remarkable elsewhere. But why? Is it because of misperceptions we have about Buddhism? Buddhist violence--or violence committed by Buddhists, more properly speaking--is a strained concept for us, to put it mildly. I can easily imagine being assaulted by an infuriated Christian or by a hysterically outraged jihadist, by a...

It was good to hear some encouraging news from the Church of England, reported by Robert last week. However, little good seems to come from the The Episcopal Church (TEC) in USA. The Church of England Newspaper (27 February 2009) reported that the Anglican Communion’s first Anglican-Buddhist bishop was recently elected at a special convention of the Diocese of Northern Michigan. Concerns had been raised about the suitability of a professed Buddhist who said he had received Buddhist “lay ordination” and was “walking the path of Christianity and Zen Buddhism together” as well as the fact that he was the...

In his Faculty Research Lecture on March 10, Gregory Schopen hopes to illuminate a little-known aspect of Buddhism: the fact that it was one of the earliest social organizations in India to develop what might be called a corporation.AS ONE OF the world's leading authorities on Buddhism, Gregory Schopen has shattered many myths, notably the notion that Buddhist monks in ancient India renounced money and property. While his painstaking research certainly helped Schopen demystify monasticism in the land of Buddhism's birth, he owes his remarkable academic success not so much to scholarship as to his grandfather, a cowboy in South...

Situation "very tense", unrest possible in Tibet: Dalai Lama AFP[Wednesday, February 11, 2009 23:00] BADEN BADEN, Germany - The Dalai Lama warned Wednesday of a fresh uprising in Tibet in the "very tense" run-up to the 50th anniversary of the failed rebellion against Chinese rule that prompted his flight into exile. "Today there is too much anger... The situation is very tense," said the 73-year-old Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader during a visit to the German spa town of Baden Baden. "At any moment there can be an outburst of violence," he told a group of journalists. "This is my worry...

He loves him. The Dalai Lama admits, "I love George Bush." Beeqube and ROP reported: The Dalai Lama, a lifelong champion of non-violence on Saturday candidly stated that terrorism cannot be tackled by applying the principle of ahimsa because the minds of terrorists are closed. "It is difficult to deal with terrorism through non-violence," the Tibetan spiritual leader said delivering the Madhavrao Scindia Memorial Lecture here. He also termed terrorism as the worst kind of violence which is not carried by a few mad people but by those who are very brilliant and educated.

NEW DELHI: The Dalai Lama, a lifelong champion of non-violence on Saturday candidly stated that terrorism cannot be tackled by applying the principle of ahimsa because the minds of terrorists are closed. "It is difficult to deal with terrorism through non-violence," the Tibetan spiritual leader said delivering the Madhavrao Scindia Memorial Lecture here. He also termed terrorism as the worst kind of violence which is not carried by a few mad people but by those who are very brilliant and educated. "They (terrorists) are very brilliant and educated...but a strong ill feeling is bred in them. Their minds are closed,"...

The Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual and temporal leader, on Friday said sex spelt fleeting satisfaction and trouble later, while chastity offered a better life and "more freedom." "Sexual pressure, sexual desire, actually I think is short period satisfaction and often, that leads to more complication," the Dalai Lama told reporters in a Lagos hotel, speaking in English without a translator. He said conjugal life caused "too much ups and downs. "Naturally as a human being ... some kind of desire for sex comes, but then you use human intelligence to make comprehension that those couples always full of...

RATANPUR, Nepal – The teenage boy revered by many as a reincarnation of Buddha sat silently in the jungle as he blessed his devotees Wednesday with a light tap on the head, which they consider the touch of the divine. His face was still, his long hair spilled over his white robe, and he never said a word. The followers of Ram Bahadur Bamjan, 18, believe he has been meditating without food and water since he was first spotted in the jungles of southern Nepal in 2005, when believers say he spent months without moving, sitting with his eyes closed...

RATANPUR, Nepal — The teenage boy revered as a reincarnation of Buddha sat silently in the jungle as he blessed his devotees Wednesday with a light tap on the head, which they consider the touch of the divine. The followers of Ram Bahadur Bamjan, 18, believe he has been meditating without food and water since he was first spotted in the jungles of southern Nepal in 2005, when believers say he spent months without moving, sitting with his eyes closed beneath a tree. Where is your Obama now ...

Lucia Otgongerel (Photo credit: UCANews) Ulan Bator, Aug 20, 2008 / 09:03 pm (CNA).- Lucia Otgongerel was born in Mongolia 30 years ago without hands or legs. She lived in a deep depression until 2002 when she converted to Catholicism and, as she explains, discovered “true joy.” Today she works in the capital city of Mongolia, Ulan Bator, as a teacher for seven children with special needs.Now Lucia claims, “I could not live without my faith.” She overcomes the challenges of her physical condition though an intense life of prayer: including the daily Rosary, meditations and study of the...

Madison, WI - Seated cross-legged onstage in a large upholstered chair, one of the world's best-known religious leaders delivered his trademark messages of compassion, peace and unity with typical humor, verve and humility Saturday afternoon. In response to a written question from the audience about Tibetan culture being strong enough to still mount widespread demonstrations against Chinese rule this year, he also ventured into the political arena. “I want to make clear. We always respect the Chinese people, not the Chinese government,” he said, to loud applause, adding that the uprisings were pro-freedom, not anti-Chinese. For the more than 7,000...

"...During a question-and-answer session following the mostly lighthearted talk, he added that reaching out to other religions is the best way to combat violent religious extremism. "Sometimes in the West, [there is] some impression that Islam is something militant. Totally wrong," he said. "Since [the] Sept. 11 event, I try to reach out to Muslim brothers and sisters. ...They are wonderful -- Islamic people. Very warm-hearted. Very sensible," he said, adding that some Christians, Buddhists and Hindus are also extremists. "These few mischievous people cannot represent whole traditions," said the Dalai Lama, who will continue lecturing at Lehigh through Tuesday...

[emphasis added --ed.] [N.B. "Kill the Buddha" is a metaphysical metaphor not to be construed as a literal. --ed.] There's an old saying, "If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him." Who's that Buddha? What does it mean to "meet" the Buddha? What does killing the Buddha imply? The historical Buddha, Shakyamuni, on attaining enlightenment, is said to have realized that all beings, just as they are, are Buddhas. If that's so, meeting a Buddha on the road should be a pretty commonplace event! So should being a Buddha on the road! But that's where the word...

“The earthquake happened on Buddha’s birthday,” a friend somberly explained to me yesterday. “I’m afraid that things in China are going to get worse. I have a bad feeling about our country right now.” She went on to explain that while Buddha has no power to create or stop such disasters, she felt that the occurrence of the earthquake on Buddha’s birthday was an ominous sign. My friend is only 25 years old but she is a follower of what she calls ‘Tibetan Buddhism.’ Her husband, who is also a Buddhist, encouraged her to practice the religion.

The simple life of monks at China's famed Shaolin Temple got an upgrade with the installation of luxury toilets costing more than ï¿½200,000. Established about 1,500 years ago, the temple, in central China's Henan province, is famous for combining martial arts with Buddhism and is a popular tourist attraction. The most lavish of the new facilities measures more than 1,500 square feet and is equipped with a nappy changing station and a foyer with an LCD television.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: it is hard not to be sympathetic to the travails of the people of Tibet. Annexed against their will almost 60 years ago, their culture destroyed, their self-determination trampled under foot, their freedoms curtailed, and their religion mocked, Tibet is a case study of what atheists do when they get to rule. Please, recall the infamous Maoist maxim: "Religion is poison." It is the same feeling echoed by the "bright" Neo-atheists such as Dawkins, Harris, Wilson, and their sycophant followers. The difference between these and the Maoists is that the latter...

Monk-led protests show Buddhist activism By DENIS D. GRAY, Associated Press Writer Sun Mar 30, 1:38 AM ET Buddhist monks hurling rocks at Chinese in Tibet, or peacefully massing against Myanmar's military, can strike jarring notes. These scenes run counter to Buddhism's philosophy of shunning politics and embracing even bitter enemies — something the faith has adhered to, with some tumultuous exceptions, through its 2,500-year history. But political activism and occasional eruptions of violence have become increasingly common in Asia's Buddhist societies as they variously struggle against foreign domination, oppressive regimes, social injustice and environmental destruction. More monks and nuns...

There is much confusion in the Western world over the basic tenants of Buddhism. Many Westerners believe that Buddhism is -- a) a religion circulating around the worship of a portly Asian sage (often gilded or bronzed and meditating near the door of your favorite Chinese restaurant holding the mints and toothpicks), b) involving a lot of sitting in uncomfortable positions, and c) coldly atheistic or fancifully pantheistic (depending on which section of Wikipedia you consult) Of course, when inspected closer, these stereotypes and inadequate attempts of pigeonholing a religion that has neither formal creed nor “divine” teachings is absolutely...

Chinese paramilitary police unload equipment on a road on the outskirts of Hutiaoxia, southeast of Zhongdian, in China's Yunnan province Thursday March 20, 2008. Hundreds of paramilitary troops were setting up camp in the town, which is on the road to Zhongdian, a city in a Tibetan area of Yunnan known as Shangri-La. (AP Photo/Greg Baker) BEIJING (AFP) — Thousands of soldiers were seen in Lhasa on Thursday amid reports of a huge military build-up, as the Dalai Lama expressed fears China's crackdown on Tibetan protesters had caused many casualties. Long military convoys were on the move in Tibet while...

Chinese authorities have been forcing Tibetans to sign a petition opposing the Dalai Lama's return, a London-based group said, in apparent retaliation for the award of a high U.S. honour to Tibet's spiritual leader. President George W. Bush gave the exiled god-king the Congressional Gold Medal in Washington in October, infuriating Beijing. It came on the heels of the Dalai Lama's reception by German Chancellor Angela Merkel in September. The Dalai Lama, 72, has lived in exile in India since fleeing his predominantly Buddhist homeland in 1959 after a failed uprising against Communist rule. Closed-door talks between Beijing and his...

...One estimate puts the average age of Buddhist converts (about a third of the American Buddhist population) at upwards of 50. This means that the religion is almost certain to see its numbers reduced over the next generation as boomer Buddhists begin to die off without having passed their faith along to their children. And Jewish and Christian models offer the most logical solution for reversing that decline. The basic problem is that non-Asian converts tend not to regard what they practice as a religion. From the beginning, Buddhism has been seen in its American incarnation not as an alternative...

Quebec Mandates Relativistic Ethical and Religious Education For All Students in Province Program includes positive presentation of homosexual families and requires children to question their own religious upbringing By John-Henry Westen QUEBEC CITY, October 4, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - As of the beginning of the 2008 school year, all students in the province of Quebec whether in public school, private school or even homeschooled will be mandated to take a program on "Ethics and Religious Culture" which runs from grade one till the end of high school. The program is completely relativistic and includes positive presentation of homosexual families and requires...

The monks have vowed to continue their action Lorries with loudspeakers have been driving through Burma's main city of Rangoon warning residents to stop anti-government protests.The broadcasts threatened that "action will be taken against those who violate this order". But hundreds of monks and civilians defied the threats and began fresh protests at the Shwedagon pagoda. On Monday, there were protests in at least 25 towns, with tens of thousands of people marching in Rangoon. Several military trucks are now parked near Shwedagon pagoda, which has been the focus of the protests. Eyewitnesses said several hundred monks gathered at...

Burma's ruling military junta has warned it is ready to "take action" against Buddhist monks leading mounting protests, state media have reported. Brig Gen Thura Myint Maung, minister for religion, warned them not to break Buddhist "rules and regulations" as Rangoon saw the largest march yet. He blamed the protests on "destructive elements" opposed to peace in Burma. President George W Bush is set to announce fresh US sanctions on Burmese leaders, the White House says.

Thousands of Buddhist monks have protested in several Burmese cities in escalating protests against the military government. In the western port city of Sittwe, nearly 2,000 monks demanded the release of four monks arrested on Tuesday. About 1,000 monks marched through Mandalay, and several hundred more in Rangoon, the former capital.

Irony is the ultimate entertainment, and today the Chinese government has outdone even itself. In effect the Godless Communists have proclaimed themselves God. In an effort to culturally castrate Tibet, Chinese Communist Party Hacks (forgive the quadruple redundancy) have laid their heavy police state hands on Tibetan social systems, transportation, immigration, and even religious practices. Not content to control Tibetan temporal transactions, China’s chief thugs are now targeting the afterlife. Buddhists — Tibetan and otherwise — believe in reincarnation, that they will be born again into this world, which stands as the most complete form of auto-masochism ever conceived. They...

Major Buddhist site comes to light Tuesday July 10 2007 14:16 IST VIJAYAWADA: A chance digging by mulberry farmers in agricultural lands have uncovered major Buddhist architectural finds in Kanthamanenivarigudem of West Godavari district. Two ancient sites are not only seen as prototypes of the present-day temples, but they have also provided the first-ever proof of the existence of another major Buddhist sect apart from the hitherto known Mahayana, Hinayana and Vajrayana sects. Interestingly, the new finds are just 2 km away from the famous Second Century rock-cut Buddhist caves of Guntupalli or Jilakarragudem in West Godavari, known as the...

The term "bleeding-heart liberal" has been bandied about for years, in an effort to illustrate the faux or at least hyperbolic sense of compassion attributed to those on the left. The lefties in America and Europe would like to be known as those who care, unless you happen to be a Bible-following Christian, a conservative or a fetus. The information age has facilitated the dissemination of all things cultural, spiritual and intellectual. One of the most important developments in the West has been the study and practice of Eastern religions and "ways." Zen Buddhism, for instance, is thought of by...

The conversion is expected to be the largest in modern times Thousands of tribal and Dalit Hindus in India are to embrace the Buddhist faith at a huge gathering in Mumbai. The ceremony, which may be presided over by Tibet's exiled leader, the Dalai Lama, is billed as the largest religious conversion in modern India. The converts hope to escape the rigid caste system in which their status is the lowest. Right-wing Hindus have often opposed conversion, pushing some Indian states to restrict legal changes of faith. The organisers say the number of people to convert in Sunday's ceremony...

The Light of Kucha In this third part of travels on the Chinese Silk Road, Nishy Wijewardane reveals the remarkable Buddhist legacy of the Kingdom of Kucha, northern Taklamakan Desert, Xinjiang. Just a day before leaving Colombo for Central Asia, a book I ordered months earlier arrived through the post, much to my delight. It contained rare photographs of extraordinarily beautiful 3-5th C AD Buddhist cave murals from a remote corner of China's vast Xinjiang Autonomous Region. The exhilarating photographs depicted exquisite renditions of the Jataka Tales in colours alien to murals in Sri Lanka. As the pages turned, my...

Concerns are mounting in India for the wellbeing of a sacred tree under which Lord Buddha first attained enlightenment more than 2500 years ago. The Bodhi tree in Bihar state, eastern India, has been afflicted with a mystery ailment, causing it to shed its leaves. The giant pipal, or Ficus religiosa, situated outside the Mahabodhi shrine is sacred to Buddhists, who make pilgrimages from around the world to worship at it. Scientists are examining the tree, which began dropping large quantities of leaves late last month, raising fears that it was starting to die. "We have taken soil and leaf...

The largest religious mass conversion in India's history was set to go ahead last night after a court ruling that allowed more than half a million people to become Buddhists in a single rite performed by the Dalai Lama. The ceremony will go ahead at Mumbai's Mahalaxmi Racecourse after the Bombay High Court rejected a public interest petition calling for a ban on using the racecourse for the event. More than 1000 nomadic groups and other families - numbering more than 500,000 people in all - will embrace Buddhism simultaneously. [Snip] The issue of religious conversion in India is normally...

A Buddhist group says it will gather a quarter of a million of the faithful at a mass rally on April 25 to pressure the Constitution Drafting Committee to declare Buddhism the official national religion in the new charter. Phra Thepvisutthikavi of the Buddhism Protection Centre of Thailand (BPCT), said 200,000-300,000 Buddhists were expected to join the rally to monitor the deliberations of changes to the first draft by the CDC, to begin on April 26. The monk denounced CDC chairman Prasong Soonsiri's remark that the charter writers would not include Buddhism as the state religion. Maj-Gen Thongkhao Puangrodpan, deputy...

“Allahu Akbar”! The tinny P.A. system tore asunder the pre-dawn peace and quiet. I was jolted in my mind, almost like experiencing a car wreck, suddenly and without any warning. This totally incongruous sound intruded upon and encompassed everything, causing even the birds to rustle in the darkness.

If you're a Tibetan Buddhist or you're leaning that way, you may not know it, but you need Jesus. That's the thinking behind a series of Christian evangelical workshops -- including one later this month in Wheaton -- that will coincide with the Dalai Lama's trip to Chicago and other American cities this spring. Interserve USA is putting on the workshops to teach Christians how to talk to Buddhists and, perhaps, to win converts. "We welcome the Dalai Lama here, but we also want to have a chance to reach Tibetan Buddhists with the gospel," said Doug Van Bronkhorst, executive...

The military regime in Burma is intent on wiping out Christianity in the country, according to claims in a secret document believed to have been leaked from a government ministry. Entitled "Programme to destroy the Christian religion in Burma", the incendiary memo contains point by point instructions on how to drive Christians out of the state. The text, which opens with the line "There shall be no home where the Christian religion is practised", calls for anyone caught evangelising to be imprisoned. It advises: "The Christian religion is very gentle – identify and utilise its weakness." Its discovery follows widespread...

Burma's military leaders LONDON, UK (ANS) -- A shocking new report about a range of tactics used by the military regime in Burma to suppress Christianity is about to be released in London. Called “Carrying the Cross: The military regime’s campaign of restriction, discrimination and persecution against Christians in Burma” it cites a document, allegedly from the Ministry of Religious Affairs, which has been widely circulated in Rangoon with the headline “Programme to destroy the Christian religion in Burma.” It begins: “There shall be no home where the Christian religion is practised.” The report will be launched at a...

What can be more astonishing between a saint confusing people and a rogue speaking the truth? Two such unexpected observations became media bytes recently. The Dalai Lama, on a month-long trip to the US and South America, said at San Francisco and Chicago that Islam is a religion of compassion which is being unfairly marginalised by few extremists. Ye Xiaowen, the Director of State Administration for Religious Affairs, recently said that Buddhism can reduce social divisions in China better than Islam and Christianity, adding Buddhism can help believers cope with fast-changing society plagued by wealth gap and social unrest. In...

The first construction boom began about 2,000 years ago, when Ashoka the Great was founding the first Indian empire, when Julius Caesar reigned over Rome, when traders from the Mediterranean found their way to what is now an obscure Maharastra village... But another construction boom threatens the existence of an area they say could well reveal itself as "the Pompeii of India", the legendary Roman city buried by a volcano and lost for 1,600 years... A dusty village museum houses a treasure-trove of 23,852 pieces of stone and terracotta sculptures, replicas of Roman coins and lamps, miniature inkpots, jewellery and...

Excerpt - TOKYO (AFP) - A part of a Buddhism sutra was found inside one of the two giant Buddhas of Bamiyan, providing a hint for unveiling the mystery surrounding the creation of the statues, a Japanese news agency has reported. The fragment of the scripture was believed to be the original Sanscrit document, written with the letters often used in the sixth and seventh century, according to a Kyodo news dispatch from Kabul. A German team of researchers from the International Council on Monuments and Sites found the sutra in July inside the rubble of the remains of the...

IGER Woods got ambushed by an evangelical guest of Nike on Oct. 9 during an exclusive golf outing for top business and entertainment executives. ... "During the lunch, there was a Q&A session with Woods, and most people were asking about their swings or golf questions," our source said. "Until some guy - a guest of Nike - stood up and said, 'Have you accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior? And if not, prayfully, would you?' " The source added, "You could have heard a pin drop. People were mortified. But Tiger was as unflappable as he is on...

Archaeologists have dug up remnant seems to be of Buddhist era at Kapileswar on the City outskirts which can throw light on hitherto unknown aspects of Lord Buddha. The new findings can either put to rest the long-drawn debate about his birthplace, early life and the life and culture of that period or add more fuel to the controversy. The excavation work for 10 days in this village by a team of the State Museum has thrown up remains, which experts believe belong to the Buddhist era. The findings would help trace the existence of a Buddhist centre there, believe...

(JHR) Ted Kennedy and his fellow liberal socialists in Massachusetts must be breaking out their fat cigars as they hoot and holler over the absolute mockery that California Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and his leftist Democrat wife, Maria Shriver, are making of the California GOP. What liberal Democrats could not accomplish through the failed leadership of ousted Democratic Governor Gray Davis, they have certainly accomplished through the great conservative betrayal of Team Shriver-Schwarzenegger. Both Shriver and Schwarzenegger have each hired homosexuals to be their respective chiefs of staff. Both have taken blood oaths to promote the radical elements of the...

Buddhism was introduced to the United States near the beginning of the 20th century, but over the past 30 years or so, Buddhism has crept into our cultural consciousness. For some it is known as having been co-opted into a marketing campaign (such as to promote the Zen Micro MP3 player), for others as a cause for Hollywood celebrities, for still others a trend in architectural design, etc. But for many others – approximately one million U.S. believers among 380 million worldwide who profess to be Buddhists rather than merely being spiritually or creatively influenced by its philosophies – it...

Posted by Pennywise on Friday September 12, @04:51PM from the there-is-no-spoon dept. His Holiness the Dalai Lama recently made a surprising suggestion -- neuroscientists should turn to Buddhism and use meditation as a tool for investigating the mind. The suggestion comes as the Dalai Lama is set to speak to a sold out crowd at MIT tomorrow about bringing Buddhists and scientists together to explore the brain and mind. Scientists who have met the Dalai Lama say they have been struck at his openness to science. He has said he has been interested in science since he was a boy,...

Sri Lankan Sinhala soldiers who were removed from Muttur Town by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) had launched bomb attacks on the St. Anthony's Church where more than 600 Tamils have taken refuge, local sources said. Three people were killed and the other hundreds escaped by a hairline, sources added. Buddhist Butchers had in the past bombed St. Peter's Church in Jaffna killing hundreds, massacred hundreds at the Holy Madhu Church and recently murdered five people at the island?s largest church located in Pesalai, Mannar.

Sometimes the DUmmies come up with a proposition so absolutely ABSURD that it falls into the category of the comical. In this case it is this PROPOSITION, "Should religion be outlawed as it seems to be at the epicenter of most of the worlds strife." Even FUnnier than the fact that a DUmmie made this proposal is that the other DUmmies have joined in the chorus of agreement. So let us now watch the DUmmies once again toss all reason to the wind in Bolshevik Red while the commentary of your humble correspondent, praying fervently that the DUmmies continue...

China's miracle in the desert is drying up By Jim Yardley The New York Times SATURDAY, MAY 28, 2005 DUNHUANG, China At the bottom of the mountainous dunes once traversed by traders and pilgrims on the ancient Silk Road, Wang Qixiang stood with a camera draped around his neck. He was a modern pilgrim of sorts, a tourist. He and his wife had traveled by train more than 3,200 kilometers, or 2,000 miles, from eastern China to the forbidding emptiness of the Gobi Desert to glimpse a famous pool of water known as Crescent Lake. They came because the lake...

A fire in a 1,000-year-old Buddhist temple in a remote valley of Himachal Pradesh has reduced the pinewood-structure to ashes and also destroyed a number of scriptures, artefacts and murals, officials said. The fire at the temple in Ribba in Kinnaur valley, about 200 km from Shimla, started late on Friday and caused losses of nearly Rs 125 million, they said. Besides, 170 Buddhist scriptures written over centuries by monks on birch paper rolls, many murals of Lord Buddha, antique jewellery and other artefacts have been reduced to ashes. Himalayan pinewood planks that were used to construct the temple only...

2,300-year-old artefacts may change Ashoka-Buddhist history (FOC) BHUBANESWAR: Orissa Institute of Maritime and South East Asian Studies (OIMSEAS) has unearthed some 2,300-year-old artefacts at Jajpur district in Orissa, which, it claimed, could change some historical narratives on the Ashokan period. The description of Chinese pilgrim Hieun-Tsang about Ashoka that he had constructed 10 stupas in Odra country where Buddha had preached may come true. Earlier, historians refused to accept the narrative. We have already analysed five stupas and found three more similar structures,” OIMSEAS Director Debaraj Pradhan told mediapersons here. He said a huge inscribed monolithic stupa along with other...